Mar 27, 2015

Before we watch this video, let's have a little giggle. Only people who are as crazy about cats as we are would be interested in clicking on a post title with this name. Cats. Playing with a bug. How exciiiiiiting...

But it is! And the great news for all of us who are crazy about cats? The video is more than seven minutes long, and if you want to watch the whole thing, it'll be seven minutes well spent. I could watch this fluffy crew of kittens play all day!

Mar 26, 2015

Happy Three Cats Thursday, Cuteheads! Wow, it's been a while, hasn't it?! I want to give you all an update on the boys! The excitement never ends around here, for sure.

Pimp

Pimpy is doing amazing. He is such a wise old man, and his daily routine makes me smile every single day. We brush my teeth together, he yells at me from the bathroom counter for water, he sleeps in the same spot right next to me every night, and jumps on the bed 2.5 seconds after I get in, just like clockwork.

Plus, seriously... look at that face!

Pimp is 15 years old, you know, and he gave me quite a scare a few months ago. I honestly thought I was going to lose him. He had been slowing down a little bit, I had noticed, but he was still eating and doing all his regular routine, so I just chalked it up to his old-manness. He had found a new sleeping spot in the closet kind of tucked away a little, but again, I thought he'd just found a quiet new old-man spot away from the rugrats.

But one night he didn't really eat much dinner, just picked at it. And the next morning he didn't want breakfast, at all. Which is odd, because he screams at me from the kitchen floor every single morning (with his old man raspy meow) for his breakfast, and then practically gallops over to where I set his bowl down. But one meal is just one meal, and it's possible he had eaten all the dry food during the night (I always leave some out so that he can eat whenever he wants since he's so scrawny).

I told myself I'd see how he was in the evening, and decide whether we were going to the vet based on that. So when I got home from work, it was time for dinner and he did not want it at all. Nothing. He didn't even get up to go to the kitchen for it like he normally does, and he was just seeming pretty lethargic. I told myself I was taking him to the vet the next day, for sure.

But then, in the next few hours, he just started to go really downhill. He was in his closet fort, and not wanting to come out. His eyes started to look a little glazed, and I could tell he was just not right. I sat there watching him like a hawk to see if it was something that warranted the emergency vet probably more than an hour. And I had no idea what to do. I didn't want to not take him if he needed it, but I also didn't want to put him through that stress if he didn't (not to mention the money, which is not the important thing here, of course).

It was just me, and I really wanted someone else there, and someone else to help me decide and give an opinion, so I called my ex-boyfriend over, who used to live with us so he knows Pimp inside and out too. He was super nice and came right over, and we sat and watched him for another couple hours. If he was just going to stay the same, the morning would be fine. And honestly, if it was going to be his time, I was worried that the decision I was making was whether he was going to go peacefully at home and comfortable, or over-stressed out and hooked up to things at the vet (the last time I took him to the vet, the car ride home actually really worried me and he seemed really, really stressed).

But after a couple hours, he started to get worse fast. I'd kind of get him out of his fort to check on him, and he'd walk right back -- but he started being off balance and stumbling to the side and almost falling over walking. When I saw that, I immediately said "THAT'S IT! We're going to the ER right this second!"

Turns out his temperature was super low -- like 93.7, I think -- and he was very dehydrated. There may have been other things, but the ER's mission was to try to bring him back to normal, and then our regular vet could do any other tests he wanted the next day. But honestly, we were all very worried about him.

Luckily, $2,000 later, I picked him up in the morning (so relieved that I hadn't gotten "the call" overnight!), and he was a totally different cat! He was definitely still not 100% by far, but he was Pimp again and meowing and poking his nose out of the carrier! I swear they saved his life.

After that, we went to our vet and he got a slew of tests and medicine and was kept hospitalized that day and on fluids. Turns out he had a bad UTI and a kidney infection. I felt horrible! He hadn't shown any signs of having all that wrong, and I felt terrible. But the good news is that it was all fixable, and while he wasn't totally out of the dark, we had a plan.

Fast forward to today and probably $4,000 later... HE IS AWESOME! And he sleeps next to me in his spot, yells for water on the bathroom counters, raspy screams at me for breakfast and doesn't sleep in the closet hidey spot anymore!

If you remember, he is hyperthyroid, and we'd been managing it with the Hill's prescription y/d food. That had worked great for years, but he didn't seem to be responding to it as well lately (plus, I wanted to be able to feed him way more delicious food!), so we switch the daily pills instead. I hide them in treats and anything else I can think of to get him to take them (he will NOT be pilled), and he seems to be doing great.

So, that was a way longer story than I'd thought it was going to be, but it has a good ending so it was worth it! :)

Other updates: He has a new bed he loves that self-heats, he's eating super expensive food that he loves, he has a new water fountain that he's not too fond of even though it cost me quite a pretty penny, and I basically spoil the crap out of him and indulge his every whim. Because he deserves it!

Moo

Moo is my sweet boy and my cuddlebug. He is so precious and he loves his mommy so much. Every chance he gets, he wants to be picked up and rub his head in my neck and push back on my hand when I scratch the back of his neck... so much so that I can't believe he isn't worried about falling out of my arms (although I'd never drop him!).

He is also just not nearly as smart as Pimp, bless his heart. He kind of reminds me of a cross between a dumb jock and a teddy bear, just so happy in his world and oblivious to the fact that others are just a little sharper than he is. Haha.

He won't eat treats until Pimp eats one first and shows him how (every time). He just kind of looks like he's not sure what's going on sometimes (in a cute way) and just blindly comes whenever I call him, does whatever I ask him to do, is so well-behaved and mild-mannered and precious... I just love this cat!

Other updates: He's on an eternal diet because he really has lived up to his name. I've also been working to get him off dry food entirely.

One other super important update: The #notbox is still around! I think it will be TWO years old in May! Can you imagine?! He still sits in it and plays with it every single day!

Phantom

Oh, Phantom. Where to even begin here? This cat is probably one of the goofiest, silliest, most annoying, smartest, manipulative, adorable, loving cat I've ever met (and I've met a lot of cats!). He is also the biggest pain in the butt, and my life consists of trying to figure out how to live in peace with this toddler of a cat who is truly in his terrible twos (that I love more than anything in the world!).

This is a day in the life of Phantom (kittens, cover your ears!): 1. Sh*tting, 2. Not doing sh*t, 3. Knocking sh*! off counters, 4. Annoying the sh*t out of me. I'm sure many of you know some similiar kitties... Haha.

He looks at me, and while I'm watching him and telling him no, he unapologetically knocks whatever he was poised to knock off the counter right off. To get my attention (ALL. THE. TIME.), he just wreaks havoc on anything that is not tied down, or chews up the corner of any piece of paper or book that is gnawable. Then when I say no and go over to see what in the world he just knocked over or did, he looks at me with complete innocence, does his chirpy meow, and literally skips over to his Da Bird toy (most favorite thing ever!) and paws at it like I'm going play with him then. He's nuts! I don't know why he thinks I'm going to reward him for doing bad things. :) But it is adorable.

He also gives Pimp a run for his money sometimes, keeping him young by chasing him around the house, and gives Moo some much-needed exercise by doing the same to him. Basically, I understand how people collect more and more cats... I think getting him a kitten to play with would solve all our problems, but we're not even going to entertain the impassibility of a #4, OK!?

And so that's us!

I'd love to hear how your kitties are doing! I know a lot of them, and I'd like to "meet" the rest of them!Let's share with each other about our babies in the comments today! :)

Mar 25, 2015

Fritz is so excited about getting a steak, a burger, and even some tacos! And he is SO ready to catch them.

Except that for the life of him, he just can't catch them. "A" for effort, Fritz!

NOTE FROM CUTE: Hi everyone! I've gotten some feedback about the new emails that it crashes their Outlook when they try to open it. I'm so sorry if you were one of these people! I'm trying to figure out how to make it do what it's supposed to in Outlook, but in the meantime we're back to the old version of the emails. The other one is definitely cuter, but all the cute in the world can't make the interwebz cooperate sometimes. :)